Wilderness Society Looks
To Convince Rural Skeptics

FARMINGTON, Maine -- The Wilderness Society is making an assault on rural New England with an unusual tactic: inviting townspeople to sit down and crunch numbers.

The conservation group's focus is on the Northern Forest, which stretches west from Maine through New Hampshire, Vermont and into New York. Its weapon: workshops that join people in and near the forest to analyze the local economy. The environmentalists hope to gain...